One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail Buy Videos User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Buy Videos Outlook. When Buy Videos it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail Buy Videos at regular intervals, for example), and Buy Videos when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The Buy Videos "on-line" or "off-line" state Buy Videos of the MUA Buy Videos does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running Buy Videos and Internet. The user may have Buy Videos the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ Buy Norvasc Online a dial-up connection on demand (whenever Buy Videos an Buy Videos application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user Buy Videos may not wish Buy Videos Outlook to Buy Videos trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another Buy Videos example of the use of Buy Videos these concepts Buy Videos is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device Buy Videos that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a Buy Videos "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from Buy Videos the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" Buy Videos uses no external clock reference and relies upon its Buy Videos own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the Buy Videos device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in Buy Videos synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, Buy Videos word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web Buy Videos browser that can be instructed to be in either Buy Videos "on-line" Buy Videos or "off-line" states. Buy Videos The browser Buy Videos only attempts to fetch pages from Buy Videos servers whilst in Buy Videos the "on-line" Buy Videos state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using Buy Videos local Buy Packing Peanuts Online copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded Buy Videos whilst in the Buy Videos "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself Buy Videos is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as Buy Videos a result of prior on-line browsing Buy Fanny Och Alexander by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies Buy Videos of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either Buy Videos by checking that the local copies are Buy Videos up-to-date at regular intervals Buy Videos or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to Buy Videos the on-line state. One such web browser Buy Videos capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages Buy Videos are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for Buy Videos offline browsing". Internet Explorer Buy The Da Vinci Code Movie will Buy Videos download to local Best Shares To Buy copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the Buy Videos level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc Buy Videos space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on Buy Videos which local copies Buy Videos are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for Buy Videos each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human Buy Videos interpersonal relationships. The Buy Videos distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study Buy Videos in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication Buy Videos and Buy Videos face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, Buy Videos and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater Caverta Buy Online Lozenges states that this Buy Videos distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his Buy Videos argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a Buy Videos simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an Buy Videos "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He Buy Videos also argues that even the telephone Buy Videos can be Buy Videos regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA Buy Videos and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible Buy Videos to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in Buy Videos the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency Buy Videos to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that Buy Videos this does not mean that on-line Buy Videos relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that Buy Videos contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine Buy Videos courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction Buy Videos may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being Buy Videos used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, Buy Videos rather than (as per the conventions Buy Videos of the desktop metaphor Buy Videos with its desktops, trash cans, folders, Buy Videos and so forth) the Buy Videos other way Buy Videos around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and Buy Videos a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" Buy Videos where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to Buy Videos purchase!". |
